Lesson 1: Introduction

Visual Basic 2010 is the latest version of Visual Basic launched by Microsoft in 2010.
VB2010 is almost similar to Visual Basic 2008, but it has added many new features. Like
Visual Basic 2008 , Visual Basic 2010 is also a full fledged Object-Oriented
Programming(OOP) Language, so it has caught up with other OOP languages such as C++,
Java,C# and others.

However, you don't have to know OOP to learn VB2010. In fact, if you are familiar with
Visual Basic 6, you can learn VB2010 effortlessly because the syntax and interface are
similar. Visual Basic 2010 Express Edition is available free for download from the Microsoft
site. Click on this link Visual Studio to download Vb2010. After installation, you need to
register your copy of Visual Basic 2010 Express, otherwise, it will expire in 30 days. The
registration is free provided you have a Microsoft account.

1.1 The Visual Basic 2010 Integrated Development

Environment
The Integrated Development Environment when you launch VB2010 Express is shown in the
diagram below. The IDE Start Page consists of a few sections, namely:

 The New Project/Open Project

section.
 The Recent Projects section that
shows a list of projects that have
been created by you recently.
 The Getting Started Pane- It
provides some helpful tips to
quickly develop your
applications.
 The Latest News section- It
provides latest online news about
Visual Basic 2010 Express. It
will announce new releases and
updates
 The Properties section
1.2 Creating Your First Application
To start creating your first application, you need to click on New Project. The following
VB2010 New Project dialog box will appear.

The dialog box offers you five types of projects that you can create. As we are going to learn
to create windows Applications, we will select Windows Forms Application.
At the bottom of this dialog box, you can change the default project name
WindowsApplication1 to some other name you like, for exampe, myFirstProgram. After you
have renamed the project, click OK to continue. The following IDE Windows will appear, it
is almost similar to Visual Basic 6. It consists of an empty form, the toolbox tab and the
properties. The layout is slightly different from vb2008 as the Toolbox is not shown until you
click on the Toolbox tab.

When you click on the Toolbox tab, the common controls Toolbox will appear.
Now drag the button control into the form, and change its default Text Button1 to OK in the
properties window, the word OK will appear on the button in the form, as shown below:
Next, click on the OK button and the code window appears. Enter the code as follows:

When you run the the program and click on the OK button, a dialog box will appear and
display the "WELCOME TO VISUAL BASIC 2010" message,as shown below:
Lesson 2: Working with Controls
The Controls in Visual Basic 2010 are objects that can be placed on the form to perform
various tasks. To view the controls in VB2010, click on the Toolbox tab to bring up the
common controls Toolbox as shown in Figure 2.1. The controls are categorized into Common
Controls, Containers, Menus, Toolbars, Data, Components, Printings and Dialogs. At the
moment, we will focus on the common controls. Some of the most used common controls are
Button, Label, ComboBox, ListBox, PictureBox, TextBox etc.

Figure 2.1
To insert a control into your form, you just need to drag the control and drop it onto the form.
You can reposition and resize it as you like. Lets examine a few programs that made use
of Button, Label, TextBox , ListBox and PictureBox . You don't have to worry so much
about the code because I will explain the program syntax as you progress to laterlessons.

2.1 Creating your first program

To create your first program, drag the button control into the form, and change its default
Text Button1 to OK in the properties window, the word OK will appear on the button in the
form, as shown in Figure 2.2:
 Figure 2.2
Next, click on the OK button and the code window appears. Enter the code as shown in
Figure 2.3:
 Figure 2.3
When you run the the program and click on the OK button, a dialog box will appear and
display the "WELCOME TO VISUAL BASIC 2010" message,as shown in Figure 2.4:

Figure 2.4
2.2 Using the Text Box
Next I will show you how to create a simple calculator that adds two numbers using the
TextBox control. In this program, you insert two textboxes , three labels and one button. The
two textboxes are for the users to enter two numbers, one label is to display the addition
operator and the other label is to display the equal sign. The last label is to display the
answer. Now change the label on the button to Calculate,then click on this button and enter
the following code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim num1, num2, product As Single

num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = TextBox2.Text
product = num1 + num2
Label1.Text = product

End Sub

When you run the program and enter two numbers, pressing the calculate button can let the
progam performs addition of the two numbers, as shown in Figure 2.5.
Lesson 3: Working with Control
Properties
3.1 The Control Properties
Before writing an event procedure for the control to response to a user's input, you have to set
certain properties for the control to determine its appearance and how it will work with the
event procedure. You can set the properties of the controls in the properties window at design
time or at runtime. Figure 3.1 is a typical properties window for a form. It refers particularly
to interface of the program as shown in Figure 3.2.

Figure 3.1 The Properties Window

Figure 3.2
The title of the form is defined by the Text property and its default name is Form 1. To
change the form's title to any name that you like, simple click in the box on the right of the
Text property and type in the new name, in this example, the title is Addition Calculator.
Notice that this title will appear on top of the windows. In the properties window, the item
appears at the top part is the object currently selected (in Figure 3.1, the object selected is
Form1). At the bottom part, the items listed in the left column represent the names of various
properties associated with the selected object while the items listed in the right column
represent the states of the properties. Properties can be set by highlighting the items in the
right column then change them by typing or selecting the options available. You may
also alter other properties of the form such as font, location, size, foreground color,
background color ,MaximizeBox, MinimizeBox and etc.

You can also change the properties of the object at runtime to give special effects such
as change of color, shape, animation effect and so on. For example the following code will
change the form color to yellow every time the form is loaded. VB2010 uses RGB(Red,
Green, Blue) to determine the colors. The RGB code for yellow is 255,255,0. Me in the code
refer to the current form and Backcolor is the property of the form's background color. The
formula to assign the RGB color to the form is Color.FormArbg(RGB codes).

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal
e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Me.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 255)

End Sub
End Class

You may also use the follow procedure to assign the color at run time.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal

e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Me.BackColor = Color.Magenta

End Sub

Both procedures above will load the form with a magenta background as shown in Figure 3.3
 Figure 3.3
Here are some of the common colors and the corresponding RGB codes. You can always
experiment with other combinations, but remember the maximum number for each color is
255 and the minimum number is 0.

Color RGB code Color RGB code Color RGB Code

255,0,0 255, 255, 0 255, 165, 0
0,255,0 0, 255, 255 0, 0, 0
0, 0, 255 255, 0, 255 255, 255, 255

The following is another program that allows the user to enter the RGB codes into three
different textboxes and when he/she clicks the display color button, the background color of
the form will change according to the RGB codes. This program allows users to change the
color properties of the form at run time.

The code
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim rgb1, rgb2, rgb3 As Integer
rgb1 = TextBox1.Text
rgb2 = TextBox2.Text
rgb3 = TextBox3.Text
Me.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(rgb1, rgb2,rgb3)
End Sub

The Output
 Figure 3.4

Lesson 4 : Object Oriented

Programming
In first three lessons, you have learned how to enter the program code and run some sample
Visual Basic 2010 programs but without much understanding about the logics of VB2010
programming. Now, let's get down to learning a few basic rules about writing the VB2010
program code.

First of all, let me say that though VB2010 is very much similar to VB6 in terms of Interface
and program structure, their underlying concepts are quite different. The main different is that
VB2010 is a full Object Oriented Programming Language while VB6 may have OOP
capabilities, it is not fully object oriented. In order to qualify as a fully object oriented
programming language, it must have three core technologies namely encapsulation,
inheritance and polymorphism. These three terms are explained below:

Encapsulation
Encapsulation refers to the creation of self-contained modules that bind processing functions
to the data. These user-defined data types are called classes. Each class contains data as well
as a set of methods which manipulate the data. The data components of a class are called
instance variables and one instance of a class is an object. For example, in a library system, a
class could be member, and John and Sharon could be two instances (two objects) of the
library class.

Inheritance
In object-oriented programming, classes are created according to hierarchies. Inheritance
allows the structure and methods in one class to be passed down the hierarchy. That means
less programming is required when adding functions to complex systems. If a step is added at
the bottom of a hierarchy, then only the processing and data associated with that unique step
needs to be added. Everything else about that step is inherited. The ability to reuse existing
objects is considered a major advantage of object technology.

Polymorphism
Object-oriented pogramming allows procedures about objects to be created whose exact type
is not known until runtime. For example, a screen cursor may change its shape from an arrow
to a line depending on the program mode. The routine to move the cursor on screen in
response to mouse movement would be written for "cursor," and polymorphism allows that
cursor to take on whatever shape is required at runtime. It also allows new shapes to be easily
integrated.

Visual Basic 6 is not a full OOP in the sense that it does not have inheritance capabilities
although it can make use of some benefits of inheritance. On the other hand, Visual Basic
2010 is a fully functional Object Oriented Programming Language, just like other OOP such
as C++ and Java. It is different from VB6 because it focuses more on the data itself while
VB6 focuses more on the actions. VB6 and earlier versions of VB are known as procedural or
functional programming language. Some other procedural programming languages are C,
Pascal and Fortran.

VB2010 allows users to write programs that break down into modules. These modules will
represent the real-world objects and are knows as classes or types. An object can be created
out of a class and it is known as an instance of the class. A class can also comprise subclass.
For example, apple tree is asubclassof theplantclass and the apple in your backyard is an
instance of the apple tree class. Another example is a student class is a subclass of the human
class while your son John is an instance of the student class.

A class consists of data members as well as methods. In VB2010, the program structure to
define a Human class can be written as follows:

Public Class Human

'Data Members
Private Name As String
Private Birthdate As String
Private Gender As String
Private Age As Integer
'Methods
Overridable Sub ShowInfo( )
MessageBox.Show(Name)
MessageBox.Show(Birthdate)
MessageBox.Show(Gender)
MessageBox.Show(Age)
End Sub
End Class

After you have created the human class, you can create a subclass that inherits the attributes
or data from the human class. For example, you can create a students class that is a subclass
of the human class. Under the student class, you don't have to define any data fields that are
already defined under the human class, you only have to define the data fields that are
different from an instance of the human class. For example, you may want to include
StudentID and Address in the student class. The program code for the StudentClass is as
follows:

Public Class Students

Inherits Human
Public StudentID as String
Public Address As String
Overrides Sub ShowInfo( )
MessageBox.Show(Name)
MessageBox.Show(StudentID)
MessageBox.Show(Birthdate)
MessageBox.Show(Gender)
MessageBox.Show(Age)
MessageBox.Show(Address)

End Sub

We will discuss more on OOP in later lessons. In the next lesson, we will start learning
simple programming techniques in VB2010

Lesson 5 : Writing the Code

In the previous lesson, you have learned that Visual Basic 2010 is an object oriented
programming language. You have understood the meanings of class, object, encapsulation
inheritance as well as polymorphism. You have also learned to write some simple programs
without much understanding some underlying foundations and theories. In this lesson, you
will learn some basic theories about VB2010 programming but we will focus more on
learning by doing, i.e. learning by writing programs .I will keep the theories short so that it
would not be too difficult for beginners.

5.1 The event Procedure

Visual Basic 2010 is also an event driven programming language. Event driven means the
user will decide what to do with the program, whether he/she wants to click the command
button, or he/she wants to enter text in a text box, or he/she might wants to close the
application and etc. An event is related to an object, it is an incident that happens to the object
due to the action of the user , such as a click or pressing a key on the keyboard.

A class has events as it creates an instant of a class or an object. When we start a windows
application in VB2010 in previous chapters, we will see a default form with the Form1
appears in the IDE, it is actually the Form1 Class that inherits from the Form class
System.Windows.Forms.Form, as shown in the Form1 properties window in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1 The Properties Window

When we click on any part of the form, we will see the code window as shown in Figure 5.2.
The is the structure of an event procedure. In this case, the event procedure is to load Form1
and it starts with Private Sub and end with End Sub. This procedure includes the Form1
class and the Load event, and they are bind together with an underscore, i.e. Form_Load. It
does nothing other than loading an empty form. You don't have to worry the rest of the stuff
at the moment, they will be explained in later lessons.

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal

e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

End Sub

End Class

In addition, there are other events associated with the Form1 class. These events are click,
cursorChanged, DoubleClick, DragDrop, Enter and so on, as shown in Figure 5.2(It appears
when you click on the upper right pane of the code window)
 Figure 5.2 The Events
5.2 Writing the code
Now you are ready to write the code for the event procedure so that it will do something more
than loading a blank form. The code must be entered between Private Sub.......End Sub. Let's
enter the following code :

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal

e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

Me.Text = "My First VB2010 Program"

Me.ForeColor = Color.ForestGreen
Me.BackColor = Color.Cyan

End Sub

End Class

The first line of the code will change the title of the form to My First VB2010 Program, the
second line will change the foreground object to Forest Green( in this case, it is a label that
you insert into the form and change its name to Foreground) and the last line changes the
background to Csyan color. The equal in the code actually is used to assign something to the
object, like assigning yellow color to the foreground of the Form1 object (or an instance of
Form1). Me is the name given to the Form1 class. We can also call those lines as Statements.
So, the actions of the program will depend on the statements entered by the porgrammer.

The output is shown in the Figure 5.3

 Figure 5.3
Here is another example:

Private Sub Button1_Click_1(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim name1, name2, name3 As String

name1 = "John"
name2 = "Georges"
name3 = "Ali"
MsgBox(" The names are " & name1 & " , " & name2 & " and "
& name3)

End Sub

In this example, you insert one command button into the form and rename its caption as
Show Hidden Names. The keyword Dim is to declare variables name1, name2 and name3 as
string, which means they can only handle text. The function MsgBox is to display the names
in a message box that are joined together by the "&" signs. The output is as shown in Figure
5.4
 Figure 5.4

Lesson 6 : Managing Data

There are many types of data that we come across in our daily life. For example, we need to
handle data such as names, addresses, money, date, stock quotes, statistics and etc everyday.
Similarly in Visual Basic 2010, we have to deal with all sorts of of data, some can be
mathematically calculated while some are in the form of text or other forms. VB2010 divides
data into different types so that it is easier to manage when we need to write the code
involving those data.

6.1 Visual Basic 2010 Data Types

Visual Basic 2010 classifies the information mentioned above into two major data types, they
are the numeric data types and the non-numeric data types.

6.1.1 Numeric Data Types

Numeric data types are types of data that consist of numbers, which can be computed
mathematically with various standard operators such as add, minus, multiply, divide and so
on. Examples of numeric data types are your examination marks, your height, your weight,
the number of students in a class, share values, price of goods, monthly bills, fees and etc. In
Visual Basic 2010, numeric data are divided into 7 types, depending on the range of values
they can store. Calculations that only involve round figures or data that don't need precision
can use Integer or Long integer in the computation. Programs that require high precision
calculation need to use Single and Double decision data types, they are also called floating
point numbers. For currency calculation , you can use the currency data types. Lastly, if even
more precision is requires to perform calculations that involve a many decimal points, we can
use the decimal data types. These data types summarized in Table 6.1.

Table 6.1 Numeric Data Types

Type Storage Range of Values

Byte 1 byte 0 to 255

Integer 2 bytes -32,768 to 32,767

Long 4 bytes -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,648

-3.402823E+38 to -1.401298E-45 for negative values

Single 4 bytes
1.401298E-45 to 3.402823E+38 for positive values.

-1.79769313486232e+308 to -4.94065645841247E-324 for

Double 8 bytes negative values 4.94065645841247E-324 to
1.79769313486232e+308 for positive values.

Currency 8 bytes -922,337,203,685,477.5808 to 922,337,203,685,477.5807

+/- 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,335 if no decimal is

Decimal 12 bytes use +/- 7.9228162514264337593543950335 (28 decimal
places).

6.1.2 Non-numeric Data Types

Nonnumeric data types are data that cannot be manipulated mathematically using standard
arithmetic operators. The non-numeric data comprises text or string data types, the Date data
types, the Boolean data types that store only two values (true or false), Object data type and
Variant data type .They are summarized in Table 6.2

Table 6.2: Nonnumeric Data Types

Data Type Storage Range
String(fixed length) Length of string 1 to 65,400 characters
String(variable Length + 10
0 to 2 billion characters
length) bytes
January 1, 100 to December 31,
Date 8 bytes
9999

Boolean 2 bytes True or False

Object 4 bytes Any embedded object

 Variant(numeric) 16 bytes Any value as large as Double
Variant(text) Length+22 bytes Same as variable-length string

6.1.3 Suffixes for Literals

Literals are values that you assign to a data. In some cases, we need to add a suffix behind a
literal so that VB2010 can handle the calculation more accurately. For example, we can use
num=1.3089# for a Double type data. Some of the suffixes are displayed in Table 6.3.

Table 6.3
Suffix Data Type>

& Long

! Single

# Double

@ Currency

In addition, we need to enclose string literals within two quotations and date and time literals
within two # sign. Strings can contain any characters, including numbers. The following are
few examples:

memberName="Turban, John."
TelNumber="1800-900-888-777"
LastDay=#31-Dec-00#
ExpTime=#12:00 am#

6.2 Managing Variables

Variables are like mail boxes in the post office. The contents of the variables changes every
now and then, just like the mail boxes. In term of VB2010, variables are areas allocated by
the computer memory to hold data. Like the mail boxes, each variable must be given a name.
To name a variable in Visual Basic 2010, you have to follow a set of rules.

6.2.1 Variable Names

The following are the rules when naming the variables in Visual Basic

 It must be less than 255 characters

 No spacing is allowed
 It must not begin with a number
 Period is not permitted
 Cannot use exclamation mark (!), or the characters @, &, $, #
 Cannot repeat names within the same level of scope.
Examples of valid and invalid variable names are displayed in Table 6.4

Table 6.4 Examples of Valid and Invalid Variable Names

Valid Name Invalid Name

My_Car My.Car

ThisYear 1NewBoy

Long_Name_Can_Be_USED He&HisFather *& Not allowed

6.2.2 Declaring Variables

In Visual Basic 2010, one needs to declare the variables before using them by assigning
names and data types. If you fail to do so, the program will show an error. They are normally
declared in the general section of the codes' windows using the Dim statement. The syntax is
as follows:

Dim Variable Name As Data Type

Example 6.1
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal
e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim password As String
Dim yourName As String
Dim firstnum As Integer
Dim secondnum As Integer
Dim total As Integer
Dim doDate As Date
End Sub

You may also combine them in one line, separating each variable with a comma, as follows:

Dim password As String, yourName As String, firstnum As

Integer,.............

For string declaration, there are two possible formats, one for the variable-length string and
another for the fixed-length string. For the variable-length string, just use the same format as
example 6.1 above. However, for the fixed-length string, you have to use the format as shown
below:

Dim VariableName as String * n

where n defines the number of characters the string can hold.

Example 6.2
Dim yourName as String * 10
yourName can hold no more than 10 Characters.

6.2.3 Assigning Values to Variables

After declaring various variables using the Dim statements, we can assign values to those
variables. The general format of an assignment is

Variable=Expression

The variable can be a declared variable or a control property value. The expression could be a
mathematical expression, a number, a string, a Boolean value (true or false) and etc. The
following are some examples:

firstNumber=100
secondNumber=firstNumber-99
userName="John Lyan"
userpass.Text = password
Label1.Visible = True
Command1.Visible = false
Label4.Caption = textbox1.Text
ThirdNumber = Val(usernum1.Text)
total = firstNumber + secondNumber+ThirdNumber

6.3 Constants
Constants are different from variables in the sense that their values do not change during the
running of the program.

6.3.1 Declaring a Constant

The syntax to declare a constant is

Const Constant Name As Data Type = Value

Example 6.3
Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal
e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Const Pi As Single=3.142
Const Temp As Single=37
Const Score As Single=100
End Sub

Lesson 7 : Mathematical Operations

Computer can perform mathematical calculations much faster than human beings. However,
computer itself will not be able to perform any mathematical calculations without receiving
instructions from the user. In VB2010, we can write code to instruct the computer to perform
mathematical calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other
kinds of arithmetic operations. In order for VB2010 to carry out arithmetic calculations, we
need to write code that involve the use of various arithmetic operators. The VB2010
arithmetic operators are very similar to the normal arithmetic operators, only with slight
variations. The plus and minus operators are the same while the multiplication operator use
the * symbol and the division operator use the / symbol. The list of VB2010 arithmetic
operators are shown in table 7.1 below:

Table 7.1 Arithmetic Operators

Operator Mathematical Function Example
+ Addition 1+2=3
- Subtraction 10-4=6
^ Exponential 3^2=9
* Multiplication 5*6=30
/ Division 21/7=3
Mod Modulus(returns the remainder of an integer division) 15 Mod 4=3
\ Integer Division(discards the decimal places) 19/4=4

Example 7.1
In this program, you need to insert two Textboxes, four labels and one button. Click the
button and key in the code as shown below. Note how the various arithmetic operators are
being used. When you run the program, it will perform the four basic arithmetic operations
and display the results on the four labels.

Dim num1, num2, difference, product, quotient As Single

num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = TextBox2.Text
sum=num1+num2
difference=num1-num2
product = num1 * num2
quotient=num1/num2
Label1.Text=sum
Label2.Text=difference
Label3.Text = product
Label4.Text = quotient
Example 7.2 Pythagoras Theorem
The program can use Pythagoras Theorem to calculate the length of hypotenuse c given the
length of the adjacent side a and the opposite side b. In case you have forgotten the formula
for the Pythagoras Theorem, it is written as

c^2=a^2+b^2
The Code

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim a, b, c As Single
a = TextBox1.Text
b = TextBox2.Text
c=(a^2+b^2)^(1/2)
Label3.Text=c
End Sub
Example 7.3: BMI Calculator
A lot of people are obese now and it could affect their health seriously . Obesity has proven
by the medical experts to be a one of the main factors that brings many adverse medical
problems, including the the heart disease. If your BMI is more than 30, you are considered
obese. You can refer to the following range of BMI values for your weight status.

 Underweight = <18.5
 Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
 Overweight = 25-29.9
 Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

In order to calculate your BMI, you do not have to consult your doctor, you could just use a
calculator or a home made computer program, this is exactly what I am showing you here.
The BMI calculator is a Visual Basic program that can calculate the body mass index, or BMI
of a person based on the body weight in kilogram and the body height in meter. BMI can be
calculated using the formula

weight/( height)2

where weight is measured in kg and height in meter. If you only know your weight and height
in lb and feet, then you need to convert them to the metric system (you could indeed write a
VB program for the conversion).

The Code
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArsgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim height, weight, bmi As Single
height = TextBox1.Text
weight = TextBox2.Text
bmi = (weight) / (height ^ 2)
Label4.Text = bmi
End Sub
The output is shown in the Figure 7.1 below. In this example, your height is 1.80m( about 5
foot 11),your weight is 75 kg( about 168Ib), and your BMI is about 23.14815. The reading
suggests that you are healthy. (Note; 1 foot=0.3048, 1 lb=0.45359237 kilogram)

From the above examples, you can see that perform arithmetic operations is relatively easy.
Here are more arithmetic projects you can try to programs:

 Area of a triangle
 Area of a rectangle
 Area of a circle
 Volume of a cylinder
 Volume of a cone
 Volume of a sphere
 Compound interest
 Future value
 Mean
 Variance
 Sum of angles in polygons
 Conversion of lb to kg
 Conversion of Fahrenheit to
Celsius

Lesson 8 : String Manipulation

String manipulation is an important part of programming because it help to process data that
come in the form of non-numeric types such as name, address, city, book title and more.

8.1 String Manipulation Using + and & signs.

Strings can be manipulated using the & sign and the + sign, both perform the string
concatenation which means combining two or more smaller strings into larger strings. For
example, we can join "Visual" and "Basic" into "Visual Basic" using "Visual"&"Basic" or
"Visual "+"Basic", as shown in the example below

Example 8.1(a)
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim text1, text2, text3 As String
text1 = "Visual"
text2 = "Basic"
text3 = text1 + text2
Label1.Text = text3
End Sub

The line text3=text1+ text2 can be replaced by text3=text1 & text2 and produced the same
output. However, if one of the variables is declared as numeric data type, you cannot use the
+ sign, you can only use the & sign.

Example 8.2
Dim text1, text3 as string
Dim Text2 As Integertext1 = "Visual"
text2=22
text3=text1+text2
Label1.Text = text3

This code will produce an error because of data mismatch.However, using & instead of + will
be all right.

Dim text1, text3 as string

Dim Text2 As Integer
text1 = "Visual"
text2=22
text3=text1 & text2
Label1.Text = text3

You can combine more than two strings to form a larger strings, like the following example:

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim text1, text2, text3, text4, text5, text6 As String
text1 = "Welcome"
text2 = " to"
text3 = " Visual"
text4 = " Basic"
text5 = " 2010"
 text6 = text1 + text2 + text3+text4+text5
Label1.Text = text6
End Sub
End Class

Running the above program will produce the following screen shot, as shown in Figure 8.1

Figure 8.1
8.2 String Manipulation Using VB2010 Built-in Functions
A function is similar to a normal procedure but the main purpose of the function is to accept
a certain input and return a value which is passed on to the main program to finish the
execution.There are numerous string manipulation functions built into VB2010 but I will
only discuss a few here and will explain the rest of them in later lessons.

8.2 (a) The Len Function

The length function returns an integer value which is the length of a phrase or a sentence,
including the empty spaces. The format is

Len ("Phrase")

For example,

Example 8.3
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Label1.Text = Len(TextBox1.Text)
End Sub
End Class

The output is shown in Figure 8.2

Figure 8.2
8.2(b) The Right Function
The Right function extracts the right portion of a phrase. The syntax is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right("Phrase",n)
Example 8.3
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim text1 As String
text1 = TextBox1.Text
Label1.Text = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right(text1, 4)
End Sub

The above program will return four right most characters of the phrase entered into the
textbox.

The Outputis shown in Figure 8.3

 Figure 8.3
*The reason of using the full reference is because many objects have the Right properties so
using Right on its own will make it ambiguous to VB2010.

8.2(c)The Left Function

The Left function extract the left portion of a phrase. The format is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left("Phrase",n)

Where n is the starting position from the left of the phase where the portion of the phrase is
going to be extracted. For example,

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left ("Visual Basic", 4) = Visu

Lesson 9 : Using If..Then..Else

In this lesson, you will learn how to write Visual Basic 2010 code that can make decisions. It
will process input from the user and control the program flow and outcomes based on the
decisions.

Decisions making is an important part of programming because it can solve practical

problems intelligently and provide useful output to the user. For examples, we can write a VB
program that can ask the computer to perform a certain task until a certain condition is met or
a programme that will reject non-numeric data. In order to control the program flow and to
make decisions, we will introduce the If...Then...Else control structure. To write VB code that
involves If...Then...Else, we need to use the conditional operators and the logical operators.
9.1 Conditional Operators
The conditional operators are powerful tools that resemble mathematical operators. These
operators allow a VB2010 program to compare data values and then decide what actions to
take. For example, to execute an event or terminate an event. They are also known as
numerical comparison operators. These operators are typically used to compare two values to
see whether they are equal, one value is greater or less than the other value. The comparison
will return a true or false result. These operators are shown in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1 Conditional Operators

Operator Description

= Equal to

> Greater than

< Less than

>= Equal to or Greater than

<= Less than or Equal to

<> Not equal to

9.2 Logical Operators

Sometimes we might need to make more than one comparisons. In this case, using numerical
comparison operators alone is not sufficient, we need to use the logical operators. The logical
operators are shown in Table 9.2. The aforementioned operators are usually used to compare
numerical data. However, you can also compare strings with the above operators. In making
strings comparison, there are certain rules to follows: Upper case letters are less than
lowercase letters, "A"<"B"<"C"<"D".......<"Z" and number are less than letters.

Table 9.2 Logical Operators

Operator Description

And Both sides must be true

Or One side or other must be true

Xor One side or other must be true but not both

Not Negates true

9.3 Using the If control structure with the Comparison
Operators
To effectively control the Visual Basic 2010 program flow, we shall use the If control
structure together with the conditional operators and logical operators. There are basically
three types of If control structures, namely If....Then statement, If....Then... Else statement
and If....Then....ElseIf statement.

9.3(a) If....Then Statement

This is the simplest control structure which asks the computer to perform a certain action
specified by the Visual Basic 2010 expression if the condition is true. However, when the
condition is false, no action will be performed. The general format for the if...then.. statement
is

If condition Then

Visual Basic 2010 expression

End If
Example 9.1
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myNumber As Integer
myNumber = TextBox1.Text
If myNumber > 100 Then
Label2.Text = " You win a lucky prize"
End If
End Sub

* When you run the program and enter a number that is greater than 100, you will see the
"You win a lucky prize" statement. On the other hand, if the number entered is less than or
equal to 100, you don't see any display.

9.3(b) If....Then...Else Statement

Using only If....Then the statement is not very useful in programming and it does not provide
choices for the users. In order to provide a choice, we can use the If....Then...Else Statement.
This control structure will ask the computer to perform a certain action specified by the
Visual Basic 2010 expression if the condition is true. And when the condition is false,
if...then..an alternative action will be executed. The syntax of if...then...Else statement is

If condition Then

Visual Basic 2010 expression

Else

Visual Basic 2010 expression

End If
Example 9.2: Using If...Then...Else
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myNumber As Integer
myNumber = TextBox1.Text
If myNumber > 100 Then
Label2.Text = " Congratulation! You win a lucky prize"
Else
Label2.Text = " Sorry, You dif not win any prize"
End If
End Sub

* When you run the program and enter a number that is greater than 100, the statement
"Congratulation! You win a lucky prize" will be shown. On the other hand, if the number
entered is less than or equal to 100, you will see the "Sorry, You dif not win any prize"
statement

Example 9.3
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myNumber, MyAge As Integer
myNumber = TextBox1.Text
MyAge = TextBox2.Text

If myNumber > 100 And myAge > 60 Then

Label2.Text = " Congratulation! You win a lucky prize"
Else
Label2.Text = " Sorry, You did not win any prize"
End If
End Sub

* This program uses the logical And operator besides the conditional operators. This means
that both the conditions must be fulfilled in order for the conditions to be true, otherwise, the
second block of code will be executed. In this example, the number entered must be more
than 100 and the age must be more than 60 in order to win a lucky prize, any one of the above
conditions not fulfilled will disqualify the user from winning a prize.

9.3(c) If....Then...ElseIf Statement

If there are more than two alternative choices, using jus If....Then....Else statement will not be
enough. In order to provide more choices, we can use the If....Then...ElseIf Statement.
executed. The syntax for the if...then.. Else statement is
If condition Then
Visual Basic 2010 expression
ElseIf condition Then
Visual Basic 2010 expression
ElseIf condition Then
Visual Basic 2010 expression

Else
Visual Basic 2010 expression
End If
Example 9.4
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim Mark As Integer
Dim Grade as String
Mark = TextBox1.Text
If myNumber >=80 Then
Grade="A"
ElseIf Mark>=60 and Mark<80 then
Grade="B"
ElseIf Mark>=40 and Mark<60 then
Grade="C"
Else
Grade="D"
End If
End Sub

Lesson 10 : Using Select Case in Visual

Basic 2010
In the previous lesson, we have learned the If...Then...Else control structure. In this lesson,
you will learn another way to control the program flow in Visual Basic 2010, that is, the
Select Case control structure. Select Case control structure is slightly different from the
If....Else...Then control structure. The difference is that the Select Case control structure
typically only make a decision on one expression. On the other hand, the If ...Then...Else
statement control structure may evaluate only one expression, or it may also compute
entirely different dimensions. Select Case is preferred when there exist multiple conditions.

10.1 The Select Case...End Select Structure

The syntax of the Select Case control structure is as follows:

Select Case test expression

Case expression list 1
Block of statements
Case expression list 2
Block of Statements
.
.
Case Else
Block of Statements
End Select

The usage of Select Case is shown in the following examples

Example 10.1
' Examination Grades
Dim grade As String
Private Sub Compute_Click( )
grade=txtgrade.Text
Select Case grade
Case "A"
Label1.Text="High Distinction"
Case "A-"
Label1.Text="Distinction"
Case "B"
Label1.Text="Credit"
Case "C"
Label1.Text="Pass"
Case Else
Label1.Text="Fail"
End Select
End Sub
Example 10.2
In this example, you can use the keyword Is together with the comparison operators.

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim mark As Single
mark = mrk.Text
Select Case mark
Case Is >= 85
Label1.Text= "Excellence"
Case Is >= 70
Label2.Text= "Good"
Case Is >= 60
Label3.Text = "Above Average"
Case Is >= 50
Label4.Text= "Average"
Case Else
Label5.Text = "Need to work harder"
End Select

End Sub
Example 10.3
Example 10.2 can be rewritten as follows:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
'Examination Marks
Dim mark As Single
mark = Textbox1.Text
Select Case mark
Case 0 to 49
Label1.Text = "Need to work harder"
Case 50 to 59
Label1.Text = "Average" s
Case 60 to 69
Label1.Text= "Above Average"
Case 70 to 84
Label1.Text = "Good"
Case 85 to 100
Label1.Text= "Excellence"
Case Else
Label1.Text= "Wrong entry, please reenter the mark"
End Select
End Sub
Example 10.4
Grades in high school are usually presented with a single capital letter such as A, B, C, D or
E. The grades can be computed as follow:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
'Examination Marks
Dim mark As Single
mark = TextBox1.Text
Select Case mark
Case 0 To 49
Label1.Text = "E"
Case 50 To 59
Label1.Text = "D"
Case 60 To 69
Label1.Text = "C"
Case 70 To 79
Label1.Text = "B"
Case 80 To 100
Label1.Text = "A"
Case Else
Label1.Text = "Error, please reenter the mark"
End Select

End Sub

The output of Example 10.4

Lesson 11 : Looping
In Visual Basic 2010 programming, a sequence of instructions that is repeated until a certain
condition is met is called looping. For example, we can write VB code that adds a series of
numbers until the sum exceeds a certain value or a VB program that asks the user to enter
data repeatedly until he or she enters the word 'Finish'. In Visual Basic 2010, we have three
types of Loops, they are the For.....Next loop, the Do loop. and the While.....End while loop

11.1 Looping using the For....Next Loop

The syntax for looping using the For...Next loop is:

For counter=startNumber to endNumber

One or more statements
Next
To exit a For.....Next Loop, you can place the Exit For statement within the loop; and it is
typically used together with the If....Then.....statement. For its application, you can refer to
example 11.1 d.

Example 11.1 a
Dim counter as Integer
For counter=1 to 10
ListBox1.Items.Add (counter)
Next

* The program will enter number 1 to 10 into the list box.

Example 11.1b
Dim counter , sum As Integer
For counter=1 to 100 step 10
sum+=counter
ListBox1.Items.Add (sum)
Next

*The program will calculate the sum of the numbers as follows:sum=0+10+20+30+40+......

Example 11.1c
Dim counter, sum As Integer
sum = 1000
For counter = 100 To 5 Step -5
sum - = counter
ListBox1.Items.Add(sum)
Next

*Notice that increment can be negative.The program will compute the subtraction as follow:
1000-100-95-90-..........

Example 11.1d
Dim n as Integer
For n=1 to 10
If n>6 then
Exit For
End If
Else
ListBox1.Items.Add ( n)
Next
End If
Next
The process will stop when n is greater than 6.

11.2 The Do Loop

The Do Loop structures are

a)

Do While condition
Block of VB 2010 statements
Loop
b)

Do
Block of VB2010 statements
Loop While condition
c)

Do Until condition
Block of VB2010 statements
Loop
d)

Do
Block of VB 2010 statements
Loop Until condition

Sometimes we need to exit a loop prematurely because a condition is fulfilled. The keyword
to use is known as Exit Do.Let's examine the following examples

Example 11.2(a)
Do while counter <=1000
TextBox1.Text=counter
counter +=1Loop

* The above example will keep on adding until counter >1000.

The above example can be rewritten as

Do
TextBox1.Text=counter
counter+=1
Loop until counter>1000
Example 11.2(b)
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim sum, n As IntegerListBox1.Items.Add("n" & vbTab & "Sum")

ListBox1.Items.Add("----------------------")
Do
n += 1
sum += n
ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)
If n = 100 Then
Exit Do
End If
Loop
End Sub

In the above example, we find the arithmetic summation of 1+2+3+4+......+100. In the design
stage, you need to insert a ListBox into the form for displaying the output.The program uses
the Add method to populate the ListBox. The statement

ListBox1.Items.Add("n" & vbTab & "sum")

will display the headings in the ListBox, where it uses the vbTab function to create a space
between the heading n and sum.

The statement

ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)

will list the number n and the values of the arithmetic summation. The output is displayed
below:

11.3 The While...End While Loop

The structure of a While....End While is very similar to the Do Loop. The syntax is as
follows:
While condition
Statements
End While

The above loop means that while the condition is not met, the loop will go on.The loop will
end when the condition is met.

Example 11.3
Dim sum, n As Integer
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim sum, n As Integer
While n <> 100
n += 1
sum = sum + n
ListBox1.Items.Add(n & vbTab & sum)
End While

End Sub

Lesson 12 : Functions
A Visual Basic 2010 function is a type of procedure that returns a value which is passed on to
the main procedure to finish the execution. A function is similar to a sub procedure but there
is one major difference, a function returns a value whilst a sub procedure does not.

In Visual Basic 2010, there are two types of functions, the built-in functions and the functions
created by the programmers. Functions created by the programmer are also known as user-
defined functions. In this lesson, we shall learn how to create the user-defined function.

12.1 Creating User-Defined Functions

To create a user- defined function in Visual Basic 2010, you can use the following syntaxes:

Public Function functionName (Argument As

dataType,..........) As dataType

or

Private Function functionName (Argument As

dataType,..........) As dataType

The keyword Public indicates that the function is applicable to the whole project and the
keyword Private indicates that the function is only applicable to a certain module or
procedure. The argument is a parameter that can pass a value back to the function.There is no
limit to the number of arguments you can put in.
Example 12.1: BMI Calculator
This BMI calculator is a Visual Basic 2010 program that can calculate the body mass index
of a person based on his or her body weight in kilogram and the body height in meter. BMI
can be calculated using the formula weight/( height )2, where weight is measured in kg and
height in meter.

If the BMI is more than 30, a person is considered obese. You can refer to the following range of
BMI values for your weight status.

 Underweight = <18.5
 Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
 Overweight = 25-29.9
 Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

The Code
Public Class Form1

Private Function BMI(Height As Single, weight As Single) As

Double
BMI = weight / Height ^ 2
End Function

Private Sub BtnCal_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

Handles BtnCal.Click

Dim h As Single, w As Single

h = Val(TextBox1.Text)
w = Val(TextBox2.Text)
LblBMI.Text = BMI(h, w)
End Sub
End Class
The output

Figure 12.1

Example 12.2: Future Value Calculator

The concept of future value is related to time value of money. If you deposit your money in a
bank as a savings account or a fixed deposit account for a certain period of time, you will
earn a certain amount of money based on the compound interest computed periodically, and
this amount is added to the principal if you continue to keep the money in the bank. Interest
for the following period is computed based on the initial principal plus the interest, this
amount becomes the new principal. Subsequent interests are computed in the same manner.

For example, let's say you deposit $1000 in a bank and the bank is paying you 5% compound
interest annually. After the first year, you will earn an interest of $1000x0.05=$50. The new
principal will be $1000+$1000x0.05=$1000(1+0.05)=$1000(1.05)=$1050. After the second
year, the new principal is $1000(1.05)x1.05=$1000(1.05)2 =$1102.50. This new principal is
called the future value. Following the above calculation, the future value after n years will be

FV = PV * (1 + i / 100)n

Where PV represents the present value, FV represents the future value, i is the interest rate
and n is the number of periods (Normally months or years).

The Code
Public Class Form1
Private Function FV(pv As Single, i As Single, n As Integer)
As Double
FV = pv * (1 + i / 100) ^ n
End Function
Private Sub BtnCal_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Handles BtnCal.Click

Dim FutureVal As Single

Dim PresentVal As Single
Dim interest As Single
Dim period As Integer
PresentVal = TxtPV.Text

interest = TxtInt.Text
period = TxtN.Text

FutureVal = FV(PresentVal, interest, period)

LblFV.Text = Format(FutureVal, "$#,##0.00")
End Sub
End Class
The Output

Figure 12.2

12.2 Passing Arguments by Value and by Reference

Functions can be called by value or called by reference. By default, the arguments in the
function are passed by reference. If arguments are passed by reference, original data will be
modified and no longer preserved. On the one hand, if arguments are passed by value,
original data will be preserved. The keyword to pass arguments by reference is ByRef and the
keyword to pass arguments by value is ByVal.

For example,

Private Function FV(ByVal pv As Single, ByRef i As Single, n

As Integer) As Double
The function FV receives pv by value, i by reference and n by reference. Notice that although
ByRef is not used to pass n, by default it is passed by reference.

Example 12.2(a)

In this example, we created two functions that compute the square root of a number, the first
uses the keyword ByRef and the second uses the keyword ByVal.

The Code
Public Class Form1

Private Function sqroot(ByRef x As Single) As Double

x = x ^ 0.5
sqroot = x
End Function

Private Function sqroot1(ByVal y As Single) As Double

y = y ^ 0.5
sqroot1 = y
End Function

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

Handles Button1.Click
Dim u As Single
u = 9
MsgBox(3 * sqroot(u), , "ByRef")
MsgBox("Value of u is " & u, , "ByRef")

End Sub

Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)

Handles Button2.Click
Dim u As Single
u = 9
MsgBox(3 * sqroot1(u), , "ByVal")
MsgBox("Value of u is " & u, , "ByVal")
End Sub

End Class
The Output
Case 1: Passing argument using ByRef

Figure 12.3

Notice that the value of u has been changed to 3

Case 2: Passing argument using ByVal

Figure 12.4

Notice that the value of u remains unchanged.

Lesson 13 : String functions

We have introduced the basic concept of functions in the previous lesson. In this lesson, we
will examine the built-in functions in VB2010. As a matter of facts, we have introduced three
built-in functions in Lesson 8, they are the Len function, the Left function, and the Right
Function. In this lesson, you will learn additional built-in functions.

13.1 The Mid Function

The Mid function is used to retrieve a part of the text from a given phrase. The syntax is

Mid(phrase, position,n)
phrase is the string from which a part of the text is to be retrieved. position is the starting position of
the phrase from which the retrieving process begins. n is the number of characters to retrieve.

Example 13.1:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myPhrase As String
myPhrase = Microsoft.VisualBasic.InputBox("Enter your
phrase")
Label1.Text = Mid(myPhrase, 2, 6)
End Sub

* When the user clicks the command button, an input box will pop up asking the user to enter
a phrase. After a phrase is entered and OK button is pressed, the label will show the extracted
text starting from position 2 of the phrase and the number of characters extracted is 6, as
shown in the figures below:

Figure 13.1

Figure 13.2
13.2 The Right Function
The Right function extracts the right portion of a phrase. The syntax is

Microsoft.Visualbasic.Right ("Phrase", n)

Where n is the starting position from the right of the phase where the portion of the phrase is
going to be extracted. For example:

Microsoft.Visualbasic.Right ("Visual Basic", 4) = asic

Example 13.2
The following code extracts the right portion any phrase entered by the user.

Private Sub Button1_Click (ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myword As String
myword = TextBox1.Text
Label1.Text = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Right (myword, 4)
End Sub

13.3 The Left Function

The Left function extracts the left portion of a phrase. The syntax is

Microsoft.Visualbasic.Right ("Phrase", n)

TWhere n is the starting position from the left of the phase where the portion of the phrase is
going to be extracted. For example:

Microsoft.Visualbasic.Left("Visual Basic", 4) = asic

Example 13.3
TThe following code extracts the left portion any phrase entered by the user.

Private Sub Button1_Click (ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myword As String
myword = TextBox1.Text
Label1.Text = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Left (myword, 4)
End Sub

13.4 The Trim Function

TThe Trim function trims the empty spaces on both sides of the phrase. The format is

Trim("Phrase")

For example,
Trim (" Visual Basic 2010 ") = Visual basic 2010
Example 13.4
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myPhrase As String
myPhrase = Microsoft.VisualBasic.InputBox("Enter your
phrase")
Label1.Text = Trim(myPhrase)
End Sub

13.5 The Ltrim Function

TThe Ltrim function trims the empty spaces of the left portion of the phrase. The syntax is

Ltrim("Phrase")

TFor example,

Ltrim (" Visual Basic 2010 ")= Visual basic 2010

13.6 The Rtrim Function

TThe Rtrim function trims the empty spaces of the right portion of the phrase. The syntax is

Rtrim("Phrase")

TFor example,

Rtrim ("Visual Basic ") = Visual Basic

13.7 The InStr function

TThe InStr function looks for a phrase that is embedded within the original phrase and
returns the starting position of the embedded phrase. The syntax is

Instr (n, original phase, embedded phrase)

TWhere n is the position where the Instr function will begin to look for the embedded phrase.
For example

Instr(1, "Visual Basic 2010 ","Basic")=8

T*The function returns a numeric value.

TYou can write a program code as shown below:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 Label1.Text = InStr(1, "Visual Basic 2010", "Basic")
End Sub

13.8 The Ucase and the Lcase Functions

TThe Ucase function converts all the characters of a string to capital letters. On the other
hand, the Lcase function converts all the characters of a string to small letters.

TThe syntax is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.UCase(Phrase)
Microsoft.VisualBasic.LCase(Phrase)

TFor example,

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Ucase("Visual Basic 2010") =VISUAL

BASIC 2010
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Lcase("Visual Basic 2010") =visual
basic 2010

13.9 The Chr and the Asc functions

The Chr function returns the string that corresponds to an ASCII code while the Asc function
converts an ASCII character or symbol to the corresponding ASCII code. ASCII stands for
"American Standard Code for Information Interchange". Altogether there are 255 ASCII
codes and as many ASCII characters. Some of the characters may not be displayed as they
may represent some actions such as the pressing of a key or produce a beep sound. The
syntax of the Chr function is

Chr(charcode)

Tand the syntax of the Asc function is

Asc(Character)

TThe following are some examples:

Chr(65)=A, Chr(122)=z, Chr(37)=%

Asc("B")=66, Asc("&")=38

13.10 MsgBox ( ) Function

TThe objective of MsgBox is to produce a pop-up message box and prompts the user to click
on a command button before he or she can continues. This syntax is as follows:

yourMsg=MsgBox(Prompt, Style Value, Title)

TThe first argument, Prompt, will display the message in the message box. The Style Value
will determine what type of command buttons appear on the message box, please refer to
Table 12.1 for types of command button displayed. The Title argument will display the title
of the message board.

Table 13.1
Style Value Named Constant Buttons Displayed

0 vbOkOnly Ok button

1 vbOkCancel Ok and Cancel buttons

2 vbAbortRetryIgnore Abort, Retry and Ignore buttons.

3 vbYesNoCancel Yes, No and Cancel buttons

4 vbYesNo Yes and No buttons

5 vbRetryCancel Retry and Cancel buttons

TWe can use named constants in place of integers for the second argument to make the
programs more readable. In fact, Visual Basic 2010 will automatically show up a list of
named constants where you can select one of them.

Examples:

yourMsg=MsgBox( "Click OK to Proceed", 1, "Startup Menu")

and

yourMsg=Msg("Click OK to Proceed". vbOkCancel,"Startup

Menu")

TyourMsg is a variable that holds values that are returned by the MsgBox ( ) function. The
values are determined by the type of buttons being clicked by the users. It has to be declared
as Integer data type in the procedure or in the general declaration section. Table 13.2 shows
the values, the corresponding named constant and buttons.

Table 13.2
Value Named Constant Button Clicked

1 vbOk Ok button

2 vbCancel> Cancel button

3 vbAbort Abort button

 4 vbRetry Retry button

5 vbIgnore Ignore button

6 vbYes Yes button

7 vbNo No button

Example 13.5
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim testmsg As Integer
testmsg = MsgBox("Click to test", 1, "Test message")
If testmsg = 1 Then
MessageBox.Show("You have clicked the OK button")
Else
MessageBox.Show("You have clicked the Cancel button")
End If
End Sub

TTo make the message box looks more sophisticated, you can add an icon beside the
message. There are four types of icons available in Visual Basic 2010 as shown in Table 13.3

Table 13.3
Value Named Constant Icon

16 vbCritical

3 vbQuestion

48 vbExclamation

64 vbInformation

Example 13.6
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim testMsg As Integer
 testMsg = MsgBox("Click to Test", vbYesNoCancel +
vbExclamation, "Test Message")
If testMsg = 6 Then
MessageBox.Show("You have clicked the yes button")
ElseIf testMsg = 7 Then
MessageBox.Show("You have clicked the NO button")
Else
MessageBox.Show("You have clicked the Cancel button")
End If
End Sub

TThe first argument, Prompt, will display the message

13.11 The InputBox( ) Function

TAn InputBox( ) function will display a message box where the user can enter a value or a
message in the form of text.

The syntax to call up an Input Box is

Microsoft.VisualBasic.InputBox(Prompt, Title, default_text,

x-position, y-position)
Example 13.7
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim userMsg As String
userMsg = Microsoft.VisualBasic.InputBox("What is your
message?", "Message Entry Form", "Enter your messge here",
500, 700)
If userMsg <> "" Then
MessageBox.Show(userMsg)
Else
MessageBox.Show("No Message")
End If
End Sub

The input box will appear as shown in the figure below when you press the command button
Lesson 14 : The Math functions
We have learned how to VB2010 can perform arithmetic functions using standard
mathematical operators. However, for more complex mathematical calculations, we need to
use the built-in math functions in VB2010. There are numerous built-in mathematical
functions in Visual Basic which we will introduce them one by one.

14.1 The Abs function

The Abs return the absolute value of a given number.

The syntax is

Math.Abs(number)

*The Math keyword here indicates that the Abs function belong to the Math class. However,
not all mathematical functions belong to the Math class.

14.2 The Exp function

The Exp of a number x is the exponential value of x, i.e. ex .

For example, Exp(1)=e=2.71828182

The syntax is

Math.Exp(number)

Example:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim num1, num2 As Single
num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = Math.Exp(num1)
Label1.Text = num2
End Sub

14.3 The Fix Function

The Fix function truncate the decimal part of a positive number and returns the largest integer
smaller than the number. However, when the number is negative, it will return
smallest integer larger than the number. For example, Fix(9.2)=9 but Fix(-9.4)=-9

Example:
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

Dim num1, num2 As Single

num1 =TextBox1.Text
num2 = Fix(num1)
Label1.Text =num2
End Sub

14.4 The Int Function

The Int is a function that converts a number into an integer by truncating its decimal part and
the resulting integer is the largest integer that is smaller than the number. For example

Int(2.4)=2, Int(6.9)=6 , Int(-5.7)=-6, Int(-99.8)=-100

14.5 The Log Function

The Log function is the function that returns the natural logarithm of a number. For example,
Log(10)=2.302585

Example 14.3
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim num1, num2 As Single
num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = Math.Log(num1)
Label1.Text = num2
End Sub

* The logarithm of num1 will be displayed on label1

14.6 The Rnd( ) Function

The Rnd function returns a random value between 0 and 1. Random numbers often need to be
converted into integers in programming. For example, if we wish to obtain a random output
of 6 integers ranging from 1 to 6, which makes the program behaves like a virtual dice, we
need to convert the random numbers to integers using the formula Int(Rnd*6)+1.

Example 14.4
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim num as integer
Num=Int(Rnd()*6)+1
Label1.Text=Num
End Sub
In this example, Int(Rnd*6) will generate a random integer between 0 and 5 because the
function Int truncates the decimal part of the random number and returns an integer. After
adding 1, you will get a random number between 1 and 6 every time you click the command
button. For example, let say the random number generated is 0.98, after multiplying it by 6, it
becomes 5.88, and using the integer function Int(5.88) will convert the number to 5, and after
adding 1 you will get 6.

14.7 The Round Function

The Round function rounds up a number to a certain number of decimal places. The syntax is
Round (n, m) which means to round a number n to m decimal places. For example,

Math.Round (7.2567, 2) =7.26

Example 14.5
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim num1, num2 As Single
num1 = TextBox1.Text
num2 = Math.Round(num1, 2)
Label1.Text = num2
End Sub

* The Math keyword indicates that the Round function belongs to the Math class.

Lesson 15 : The Format Function

The Format function in Visual Basic 2010 displays the numeric values in different forms.
There are two types of Format functions in Visual Basic 2010, one of them is the built-in
format function while another one is defined by the users.

15.1 The Built-in Format Function

The syntax of a built-in Format function is as follows :

Format (n, "style argument")

The list of style arguments is given in Table 15.1.

Table 15.1 List of style arguments
Style
Explanation Example
argument

General To display the number without having separators Format(8972.234, "General

Number between thousands. Number")=8972.234

To display the number without having separators

Format(8972.2,
Fixed between thousands and rounds it up to two decimal
"Fixed")=8972.23
places.

To display the number with separators or

Format(6648972.265,
Standard separators between thousands and rounds it up to
"Standard")= 6,648,972.27
two decimal places.

To display the number with the dollar sign in front

Format(6648972.265,
Currency has separators between thousands as well as
"Currency")= $6,648,972.27
rounding it up to two decimal places.

Converts the number to the percentage form and

Format(0.56324,
Percent displays a % sign and rounds it up to two decimal
"Percent")=56.32 %
places.

Example 15.1
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click,
Button5.Click, Button4.Click, Button3.Click
Label1.Text = Format(8972.234, "General Number")
Label2.Text = Format(8972.2, "Fixed")
Label3.Text = Format(6648972.265, "Standard")
Label4.Text = Format(6648972.265, "Currency")
Label5.Text = Format(0.56324, "Percent")
End Sub

The Output is shown in Figure 15.1.

 Figure 15.1
15.2 The User-defined Format Function
The syntax of the user-defined Format function is

Format (n, "user's format")

Although it is known as user-defined format, we still need to follow certain formatting styles.
Examples of user-defined formatting style are listed in Table 15.2

Table 15.1 List of User-defined style arguments

Format Description Output

Rounds to whole number without separators

Format(781234.576,"0") 781235
between thousands

Rounds to 1 decimal place without separators

Format(781234.576,"0.0") 781234.6
between thousands

Rounds to 2 decimal place without separators

Format(781234.576,"0.00") 781234.58
between thousands

Rounds to 2 decimal place with separators

Format(781234.576,"#,##0.00") 781,234.58
between thousands

Displays dollar sign and Rounds to 2 decimal

Format(781234.576,"$#,##0.00") $781,234.58
place with separators between thousands
 Converts to percentage form without decimal
Format(0.576,"0%") 58%
place

Converts to percentage form with two decimal

Format(0.5768,"0%") 57.68%
places

Example 15.2
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click,
Button5.Click, Button4.Click, Button3.Click
Label1.Text = Format(8972.234, "0.0")
Label2.Text = Format(8972.2345, "0.00")
Label3.Text = Format(6648972.265, "#,##0.00")
Label4.Text = Format(6648972.265, "$#,##0.00")
Label5.Text = Format(0.56324, "0%")
End Sub

The Output window is shown in Figure 15.2.

Figure 15.2

Lesson 16 : Formatting Date and Time

16.1 Formatting Date and time using Predefined Format
Function
Date and time can be formatted using predefined Format function and also user-defined
Format function. The predefined formats of date and time are shown in Table 16.1.

Table 16.1 Predefined formats of date and time

Format Explanation

Format (Now, "General date") Formats the current date and time.

Format (Now, "Long Date") Displays the current date in long format

Format (Now, "Short date") Displays current date in short format

Format (Now, "Long Time") Display the current time in long format.

Format (Now, "Short Time") Display the current time in short format.

Instead of "General date", you can also use the abbreviated format "G" , i.e. Format (Now,
"G"). And for "Long Time", you can use the abbreviated format "T". As for "Short Time",
you may use the abbreviated format "t"

Example 16.1
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Label1.Text = Format(Now,"General Date")
Label2.Text = Format(Now, "Long Date")
Label3.Text = Format(Now, "short Date")
Label4.Text = Format(Now, "Long Time")
Label5.Text = Format(Now, "Short Time")
End Sub

The output is shown in Figure 16.1.

 Figure 16.1
16.2 Formatting Date and time using User-defined Formats
Beside using the predefined formats, you can also use the user-defined formatting functions.
The general format of a user-defined Format function for date/time is

Format (expression,style)

Table 16.2 Some of the user-defined format functions for date and time

Format Explanation

Format (Now,"M") Displays current month and date

Format (Now,"MM") Displays current month in double digits.

Displays abbreviated name of the

Format (Now, "MMM")
current month

Displays full name of the current

Format (Now, "MMMM")
month.

Displays current date in the

Format (Now,"dd/MM/yyyy")
day/month/year format.
 Displays current date in the Month,
Format (Now,"MMM,d,yyyy")
Day, Year Format

Dispalys current time in

Format (Now, "h:mm:ss tt") hour:minute:second format and show
am/pm

Format (Now, Dispalys current date and time in

"MM/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss") hour:minute:second format

Example 16.2
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click,
Button2.Click, Button3.Click
Label1.Text = Format(Now, "M")
Label2.Text = Format(Now, "MM")
Label3.Text = Format(Now, "MMM")
Label4.Text = Format(Now, "MMMM")
Label5.Text = Format(Now, "dd/MM/yyyy")
Label6.Text = Format(Now,"MMM,d,yyyy")
Label7.Text = Format(Now, "h:mm:ss tt")
Label8.Text = Format(Now, "MM/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss tt")>
End Sub

The output is shown in the Figure 16.2.

 Figure 16.2

Lesson 17 : The Checkbox

A Checkbox allows the user to select one or more items by checking the checkbox/check
boxes concerned. For example, in the Font dialog box of any Microsoft Text editor like MS
Words(as shown in Figure 17.1), there are many checkboxes under the Effects section such as
that shown in the figure below. The user can choose to underline, subscript, small caps,
superscript, blink and more. In Visual Basic 2010, you may create a shopping cart.

Example 17.1 Shopping Cart

In this example, the user can click on the heckboxes on the shopping cart that correspond to
the items they wish to purchase, and the total payment can be computed at the same time.

The code
Private Sub BtnCalculate_Click(ByVal sender As
System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
BtnCalculate.Click
Const LX As Integer = 100
Const BN As Integer = 500
Const SD As Integer = 200
Const HD As Integer = 80
Const HM As Integer = 300
Const AM As Integer = 150
Dim sum As Integer

If CheckBox1.Checked = True Then

sum += LX
End If

If CheckBox2.Checked = True Then

sum += BN
End If

If CheckBox3.Checked = True Then

sum += SD
End If

If CheckBox4.Checked = True Then

sum += HD
End If

If CheckBox5.Checked = True Then

sum += HM
End If

If CheckBox6.Checked = True Then

sum += AM
End If
Label5.Text = sum.ToString("c")

The shopping cart is shown in Figure 17.1

Figure 17.1
Here is another example

Example 17.2
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Const large As Integer = 10.0
Const medium As Integer = 8
Const small As Integer = 5
Dim sum As Integer
If CheckBox1.Checked = True Then
sum += large
End If

If CheckBox2.Checked = True Then

sum += medium
End If

If CheckBox3.Checked = True Then

sum += small
End If
Label5.Text = sum.ToString("c")

The output is shown in Figure 17.2

Figure 17.2
Example 17.3
In this example, the user can enter text into a text box and format the font using the three
check boxes that represent bold, italic and underline.

The code

Private Sub CheckBox1_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
CheckBox1.CheckedChanged
If CheckBox1.Checked Then
TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
Or FontStyle.Bold)
Else
 TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
And Not FontStyle.Bold)
End If
End Sub

Private Sub CheckBox2_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
CheckBox2.CheckedChanged
If CheckBox2.Checked Then
TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
Or FontStyle.Italic)
Else
TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
And Not FontStyle.Italic)
End If
End Sub

Private Sub CheckBox3_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
CheckBox3.CheckedChanged
If CheckBox2.Checked Then
TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
Or FontStyle.Underline)
Else
TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style
And Not FontStyle.Underline)
End If
End Sub

The output
 Figure 17.3
* The above program uses the CheckedChanged event to respond to the user selection by
checking a particular checkbox, it is similar to the click event. The statement

TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style

Or FontStyle.Italic)

will retain the original font type but change it to italic font style.

TextBox1.Font = New Font(TextBox1.Font, TextBox1.Font.Style

And Not FontStyle.Italic)

will also retain the original font type but change it to regular font style. (The other statements
employ the same logic)

Lesson 18 : The Radio Button

The radio button is another control in Visual Basic 2010 that allows selection of choices.
However, it operates differently from the check box. While the check boxes allow the user to
select one or more items, radio buttons are mutually exclusive, which means the user can
only choose one item only out of a number of choices. Here is an example which allows the
user to select one color only, as shown in Figure 18.1.

Figure 18.1
The Code
Dim strColor As String
Private Sub RadioButton8_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As
System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioButton8.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Red"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioButton7_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioButton7.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Green"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioYellow_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioYellow.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Yellow"
End Sub

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Label2.Text = strColor
End Sub

Although the user may only select one item at a time, he may make more than one selection if
those items belong to different categories. For example, the user wishes to choose T-shirt size
and color, he needs to select one color and one size, which means one selection in each
category. This is easily achieved in Visual Basic 2010 by using the Groupbox control under
the containers categories. After inserting the Groupbox into the form, you can proceed to
insert the radio buttons into the Groupbox. Only the radio buttons inside the Groupbox are
mutually exclusive, they are not mutually exclusive with the radio buttons outside the
Groupbox. In Example 18.2, the user can select one color and one size of the T-shirt.

Example 18.2
The code
Dim strColor As String
Dim strSize As String

Private Sub RadioButton8_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioButton8.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Red"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioButton7_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioButton7.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Green"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioYellow_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioYellow.CheckedChanged
strColor = "Yellow"
End Sub

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Label2.Text = strColor
Label4.Text = strSize
End Sub

Private Sub RadioXL_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioXL.CheckedChanged
strSize = "XL"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioL_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioL.CheckedChanged
strSize = "L"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioM_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioM.CheckedChanged
strSize = "M"
End Sub

Private Sub RadioS_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RadioS.CheckedChanged
strSize = "S"
End Sub
 Figure 18.2

Lesson 19 : Creating a Web Browser

Typically everyone navigates the World Wide Web using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome,
Safari, FireFox, Opera and more. However, isn't it cool that if you can create your very own
web browser that you can customize to your own taste? Yes, you can do that in Visual Basic
2010, and pretty easy too. In this lesson, we will show you how to create a simple web
browser and get it running in a few minutes.

First, start a new project in Visual Basic 2010 and name it with any name you like. Here we
use the name Web Browser. Change the name of Form1 to MyWebBrowser and the text
property to Web Browser and set its size property to 640,480.

Next, you need to add an engine so that your web browser can connect to the Internet. This
engine is the WebBrowser control, located on the Toolbox on the left side. Set its size
property to 600,400. Next, drag a text box and place it at the top of the WebBrowser control,
this serves as the address bar where the user can enter the URL. Lastly, place a command
button beside the text box and label it as Go and change its name to Go as well.

The design interface is shown in Figure 19.1

The code for the web browser is surprisingly simple, it is only a single line code! Double
click on the Go button and key in the following code:

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Go_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e

As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
MyWebBrowser.Navigate(TextBox1.Text)
End Sub

End Class

Now run the program , type in any URL and click the Go button. You will be able to browse
any web page you want.
 Figure 19.2: The Runtime Interface

Lesson 21 : Creating Graphics

21.1 Introduction to Graphics
Though Managing graphics in Visual Basic 6 seem easier as it has built-in drawing tools,
Visual Basic 2010 is much more versatile in handling graphics. For example, In Visual Basic
6, the drawing tools are included in the toolbox where the programmer just need to drag the
shape controls into the form to create rectangle, square, ellipse, circle and more. However, its
simplicity has the shortcomings, you don't have many choices in creating customized
drawings.

Since Visual Basic evolved into a fully OOP language under the VB.net framework, shape
controls are no longer available. Now the programmer needs to write code to create various
shapes and drawings. Even though the learning curve is steeper, the programmer can write
powerful code to create all kinds of graphics. You can even design your own controlsVisual
Basic 2010 offers various graphics capabilities that enable programmers to write code that
can draw all kinds of shapes and even fonts. In this lesson, you will learn how to write code
to draw lines and shapes on the VB interface.
21.1 Creating the Graphics Object
Before you can draw any graphic on a form, you need to create the Graphics object in
vb2010. A graphics object is created using a CreateGraphics() method. You can create a
graphics object that draws to the form itself or a control. For example, if you wish to draw to
the form, you can use the following statement:

Dim myGraphics As Graphics =me.CreateGraphics

*Always use Dim to define the object. Using me instead of Form1 because it is not allowed
in Visual Basic 2010.

Or if you want the graphics object to draw to a picturebox, you can write the following
statement:

Dim myGraphics As Graphics = PictureBox1.CreateGraphics

You can also use the text box as a drawing surface, the statement is:

Dim myGraphics As Graphics = TextBox1.CreateGraphics

The Graphics object that is created does not draw anything on the screen until you call the
methods of the Graphics object. In addition, you need to create the Pen object as the drawing
tool. We will examine the code that can create a pen in the following section.

21.2 Creating a Pen

A Pen can be created using the following code:

myPen = New Pen(Brushes.DarkMagenta, 10)

where myPen is a Pen variable. You can use any variable name instead of myPen. The first
argument of the pen object define the color of the drawing line and the second argument
defines the width of the drawing line.

You can also create a Pen using the following statement:

Dim myPen As Pen

myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)

Where the first argument define the color(here is blue, you can change that to red or whatever
color you want) and the second argument is the width of the drawing line.

Having created the Graphics and the Pen objects, you are now ready to draw graphics on the
screen which we will show you in the following section.

In this section, we will show you how to draw a straight line on the Form. First of all, launch
Visual basic 2010 Express. In the startup page, drag a button into the form. Double click on
the button and key in the following code.
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = me.CreateGraphics
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Brushes.DarkMagenta, 10)
myGraphics.DrawLine(myPen, 10, 10, 100, 10)
End Sub

The second created the Graphics object and the third and fourth line create the Pen object.
The fifth draw a line on the Form using the DrawLine method. The first argument use the Pen
object created by you, the second argument and the third arguments define the coordinate the
starting point of the line, the fourth and the last arguments define the ending coordinate of the
line. The general syntax of the Drawline argument is

object.DrawLine(Pen, x1, y1, x2, y2)

The output of the program is shown below:

Lesson 22 : Drawing Rectangle

22.1 Creating a Rectangle with DrawRectangle Method
There are two methods to draw a rectangle on the screen in VB2010.

Method 1
Use the DrawRectangle method by specifying its upper-left corner's coordinate and it width
and height. You also need to create a Graphics and a Pen object to handle the actual drawing.
The syntax is:
myGrapphics.DrawRectangle(myPen, X, Y, width, height)

*myGraphics is the variable name of the Graphics object and myPen is the variable name of
the Pen object created by you. X, Y is the coordinate of the upper left corner of the rectangle.

The code
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawRectangle(myPen, 0, 0, 100, 50)
Method 2
Create a rectangle object first and then draw this rectangle using the DrawRectangle method.
The syntax is as shown below:

myGraphics.DrawRectangle(myPen,myRectangle)

where myRectangle is the rectangle object created by you, the user.

The code is,

Dim myRectangle As New Rectangle

myRect.X = 10
myRect.Y = 10
myRect.Width = 100
myRect.Height = 50

You can also create a rectangle object using a one-line code as follows:

Dim myRectangle As New Rectangle(X,Y,width, height)

and the code to draw the above rectangle is

myGraphics.DrawRectangle(myPen, myRectangle)

22.2 Customizing Line Style of the Pen Object

The shape we draw so far are drawn with a solid line, we can actually customize the line style
of the Pen object so that we have dotted line, a line consisting of dashes and more. For
example, the syntax to draw a dotted line is shown below:

myPen.DashStyle=Drawing.Drawing2D.DashStyle.Dot
Where the last argument Dot specifies a particular line DashStyle value, a line that makes up of dots
here. In addition, other DashStyles values are Dash, DashDot, DashDotDot and Solid.The following
code draws a rectangle with the blue dotted line.

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myPen.DashStyle = Drawing.Drawing2D.DashStyle.Dot
myGraphics.DrawRectangle(myPen, 10, 10, 100, 50)
End Sub

The output image is as shown in Figure 22.1

Figure 22.1
If you change the DashStyle value to DashDotDot, you can draw rectangles with different
border, as shown in Figure 22.2.

The possible values of the line DashStyle of the Pen are listed in the table below:

DashStyle Value Line Style

Dot Line consists of dots

Dash Line consists of dashes

DashDot Line consists of alternating dashes and dots

DashDotDot Line consists of alternating dashes and double dots

Solid Solid line

Custom Custom line style

 Figure 22.2

Lesson 23 : Drawing Ellipse and Circle

In this lesson, we will learn how to draw ellipse and circle using the DrawEllipse method.

23.1 Drawing Ellipse with the DrawEllipse Method

The basic structure of most shapes is a rectangle, an ellipse is no exception. Ellipse is an oval
shape that is bounded by a rectangle, as shown in Figure 23.1

Figure 23.1
Therefore, we need to create a Rectangle object before we can draw an ellipse. This rectangle
serves as a bounding rectangle for the ellipse. We still need to use the DrawEllipse method to
complete the job.

On the other hand, we can also draw an ellipse with the DrawEllipse method without first
creating a rectangle. We shall illustrate both methods.

In the first method, let's say you have created a rectangle object known as myRectangle and a
pen object as myPen, then you can draw an ellipse using the following statement:
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, myRectangle)

* Assume you have also already created the Graphics object myGraphics.

The following is an example of the full code:

Example 23.1(a)
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
Dim myRectangle As New Rectangle
myRectangle.X = 10
myRectangle.Y = 10
myRectangle.Width = 200
myRectangle.Height = 100
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, myRectangle)

The output image is shown in Figure 23.2

Figure 23.2
The second method is using the DrawEllipse method without creating a rectangle object. Of
course, you still have to create the Graphics and the Pen objects. The syntax is:

myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, X,Y,Width, Height)

Where (X, Y) are the coordinates of the upper-left corner of the bounding rectangle, width is
the width of the ellipse and height is the height of the ellipse.

The following is an example of the full code:

Example 23.1(b)
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, 10, 10, 200, 100)

23.2 Drawing a Circle

After you have learned how to draw an ellipse, drawing a circle becomes very simple. We use
exactly the same methods used in the preceding section but modify the width and height so
that they are of the same values.

The following examples draw the same circle.

Example 23.2(a)
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
Dim myRectangle As New Rectangle
myRectangle.X = 10
myRectangle.Y = 10
myRectangle.Width = 100
myRectangle.Height = 100
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, myRectangle)
Example 23.2(b)
Dim myPen As Pen
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, 10, 10, 100, 100)

The output image is shown in Figure 23.3.

 Figure 23.3

Lesson 24 : Drawing Text

24.1 Drawing Text with the DrawString Method
In this lesson, we will learn how to draw text on the screen using the DrawString method.

In order to draw text on the screen, we can use the DrawString method. The syntax is as follows:

myGraphics.DrawString(myText, myFont, mybrush, X , Y)

*myGraphics is the Graphics object, myText is the text you wish to display on the screen,
myFont is the font object created by you, myBrush is the brush style created by you and X, Y
are the coordinates of the upper left corner of the Text.

You can create the Font object in Visual Basic 2010 using the following statement:

myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20)

Where the first argument of the font is the font typeface, and the second argument is the font
size. You can add a third argument as font style, either bold, italic, underline. Here are the
examples:

myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,

FontStyle.Bold)
myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,
FontStyle.Underline)
myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,
FontStyle.Italic)
myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,
FontStyle.Regular)

To create your Brush object, you can use the following statement:

Dim myBrush As Brush

myBrush = New Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.BrushColor)

Besides the seven colors, some of the common Brush Colors are AliceBlue, AquaMarine
Beige, DarkMagenta, DrarkOliveGreen, SkyBlue and more. You don’t have to remember the
names of all the colors, the IntelliSense will let you browse through the colors in a drop-down
menu once you type the dot after the word Color.

Now we shall proceed to draw the font using the sample code below:

Example 24.1
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
Dim myFont As Font
Dim myBrush As Brush
myBrush = New Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.DarkOrchid)
myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,
FontStyle.Underline)
myGraphics.DrawString("Visual Basic 2010", myFont, myBrush,
10, 10)

Run the program above and you can see the following output:

Figure 24.1
The preceding can be modified if you don’t want to create the Font and the Brush objects.
You can use the font of an existing object such as the Form and the System Colors. Replace
the last line in the preceding example with this line(you need to delete the lines that create the
Brush and the Font objects as well)

myGraphics.DrawString(“Visual Basic 2010”, me.Font,

System.Drawing.Brushes.DarkOrchid, 10, 10)

You can also add an InputBox which let the user enter his or her message then display the
message on the screen.

This is shown in Example 24.2

Example 24.2
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
Dim myFont As Font
Dim myBrush As Brush
Dim userMsg As String
userMsg = InputBox("What is your message?", "Message Entry
Form", "Enter your message here", 100, 200)
myBrush = New Drawing.SolidBrush(Color.DarkOrchid)
myFont = New System.Drawing.Font("Verdana", 20,
FontStyle.Underline)
myGraphics.DrawString(userMsg, myFont, myBrush, 10, 10)

Lesson 25 : Drawing Polygon and Pie

In this lesson, we will learn how to draw polygon and pie

25.1: Drawing a Polygon using the DrawPolygon method

Polygon is a closed plane figure bounded by three or more straight sides. In order to draw a
polygon on the screen, we need to define the coordinates of all the points (also known as
vertices) that joined up to form the polygon.

The syntax to defines the points of a polygon with vertices A1, A2, A3, A4…….An is as
follows

Dim A1 As New Point(X1,Y1)

Dim A2 As New Point(X2,Y2)
Dim A3 As New Point(X3,Y3)
.
.

Dim An as New Point(Xn,Yn)

After declaring the points, we need to define a point structure that group all the points
together using the following syntax:
Dim myPoints As Point() = {A1, A2, A3,....,An}

.Finally, create the graphics object and use the DrawPolygon method to draw the polygon
using the following syntax:

Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics

myGraphics.DrawPolygon(myPen, myPoints)

where myPen is the Pen object created using the following syntax:

myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)

Example 25.1: Drawing a Triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three vertices. Here is the sample code:

Dim myPen As Pen

Dim A As New Point(10, 10)
Dim B As New Point(100, 50)
Dim C As New Point(60, 150)
Dim myPoints As Point() = {A, B, C}
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawPolygon(myPen, myPoints)

Running the program produces the image as shown in Figure 25.1

 Figure 25.1
Example 25.2: Drawing a Quadrilateral
A quadrilateral is a polygon consist of four sides, so you need to define four vertices. The
following is the code:

Dim myPen As Pen

Dim A As New Point(10, 10)
Dim B As New Point(100, 50)
Dim C As New Point(120, 150)
Dim D As New Point(60, 200)
Dim myPoints As Point() = {A, B, C, D}
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawPolygon(myPen, myPoints)

The output image is as shown in Figure 25.2

Figure 25.2
25.2: Drawing Pie
In order to draw a pie, you can use the DrawPie method of the graphics object. As usual, you
need to create the Graphics and the Pen objects. The syntax for drawing a pie is:

myGraphics.DrawPie(myPen, X, Y, width,height, StartAngle,

SweepAngle)

Where X and Y are the coordinates the bounding rectangle, other arguments are self-
explanatory. Both StartAngle and SweepAngle are measured in degree. SweepAngle can take
possible or negative values. If the value is positive, it sweeps through clockwise direction
while negative means it sweep through anticlockwise direction.

Example 25.3: Drawing a pie that starts with 0 degree and sweep clockwise through 60
degree.

Dim myPen As Pen

myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawPie(myPen, 50,50, 150,150,0,60)

The output image is as shown in Figure 25.3

Figure 25.3

Lesson 26 : Filling Shapes with Color

In this lesson, we will illustrate how to fill the shapes with colors. In Visual Basic 2010, three
methods are used to fill shapes are FillRectangle, FillEllipse, FillPolygon and FillPie.In order
to fill the aforementioned shapes with color, we have to create the Brush object using the
following syntax:

myBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.myColor)

Where myColor can be any color such as red, blue, yellow and more. You don’t have to
worry about the names of the colors because the intelligence will display the colours and
enter the period after the Color key word.

26.1 Drawing and Filling a Rectangle

In Visual Basic 2010, the syntax to fill a rectangle with the colour defined by the brush object
is:

myGraphics.FillRectangle (myBrush, 0, 0, 150, 150)

The complete code is shown in the example below:

Example 26.1
Dim myPen As Pen
Dim myBrush As Brush
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
myBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.Coral)
myGraphics.DrawRectangle(myPen, 0, 0, 150, 150)
myGraphics.FillRectangle(myBrush, 0, 0, 150, 150)

The Output is shown in Figure 26.1

Figure 26.1
26.2 Drawing and Filling an Ellipse
The syntax to fill a ellipse with the colour defined by the brush object is:

myGraphics.FillEllipse (myBrush, 0, 0, 150, 150)

The complete code is shown in Example 26.2

Example 26.2
Dim myPen As Pen
Dim myBrush As Brush
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
myBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.Coral)
myGraphics.DrawEllipse(myPen, 0, 0, 150, 150)
myGraphics.Ellipse(myBrush, 0, 0, 150, 150)

The output is shown in the Figure 26.2

Figure 26.2
26.3 Drawing and Filling a Polygon
The syntax to fill a polygon with the colour defined by the brush object is:

myGraphics.FillPolygon(myBrush, myPoints)

The complete code is shown in the Example 26.3

Example 26.3
Dim myPen As Pen
Dim myBrush As Brush
Dim A As New Point(10, 10)
Dim B As New Point(100, 50)
Dim C As New Point(120, 150)
Dim D As New Point(60, 200)
Dim myPoints As Point() = {A, B, C, D}
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
myBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.Coral)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawPolygon(myPen, myPoints)
myGraphics.FillPolygon(myBrush, myPoints)

Running the code produces the image as shown in Figure 26.3

 Figure 26.3
26.4 Drawing and Filling a Pie
The syntax to fill a pie with the colour defined by the brush object is:

myGraphics.FillPie(myBrush, X, Y, width, height,

StartAngle, SweepAngle)

The complete code is shown in the following Example 26.4

Example 26.4
Dim myPen As Pen
Dim myBrush As Brush
myPen = New Pen(Drawing.Color.Blue, 5)
myBrush = New SolidBrush(Color.Coral)
Dim myGraphics As Graphics = Me.CreateGraphics
myGraphics.DrawPie(myPen, 30, 40, 150, 150, 0, 60)
myGraphics.FillPie(myBrush, 30, 40, 150, 150, 0, 60)

The output is shown below:

Figure 26.4
Lesson 27 : Using Timer
In this lesson, we shall show you how to use the timer in Visual Basic 2010. The timer is
used to manage events that are time-related. For example, you can use the timer to create a
clock, a stopwatch, a dice, animation and more.

27.1 Creating a Clock

To create a clock, you need to use the Timer control that comes with Visual Basic 2010. The
Timer control is a control object that is only used by the developer, it is invisible during
runtime and it does not allow the user to interact with it.

First of all, start a new project in Visual Basic 2010 and select a new Windows Application.
You can give the project any name you wish, we named it MyClock. Change the caption of
the Form1 to MyClock in the properties window. Now add the Timer control to the form by
dragging it from the control tool Box. Next, insert a label control into the form. Change the
Font size of the label to 14 or any size you wish, and set the Font alignment to be the middle
center. Lastly, you shall also set the Interval property of the Timer control to 1000, which
reflects a one-second interval(1 unit is 1 millisecond).

The statement to create a clock is only a one-line code, as follows:

Label1.Text = TimeOfDay

To create the clock, click on the Timer control and insert the code above, as shown below:

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
Label1.Text = TimeOfDay
End Sub

The resulting Clock is shown in Figure 27.1

 Figure 27.1

27.2 Creating a Stopwatch

We can create a simple stopwatch using the Timer control. Start a new project and name it
stopwatch. Change the Form1 caption to Stopwatch. Insert the Timer control into the form
and set its interval to 1000 which is equal to one second. Besides, set the timer Enabled
property to False so that it will not start ticking when the program is started. Insert three
command buttons and change their names to StartBtn, StopBtn and ResetBtn respectively.
Change their text to “Start”, “Stop” and “Reset” accordingly. Now, key in the code as
follows:

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
'To increase one unit per second
Label1.Text = Val(Label1.Text) + 1
End Sub

Private Sub StopBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles StopBtn.Click
'To stop the Timer
Timer1.Enabled = False
End Sub

Private Sub StartBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles StartBtn.Click
'To start the Timer
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub

Private Sub ResetBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ResetBtn.Click
'To reset the Timer to 0
Label1.Text = 0
End Sub

The Interface of the Stopwatch is as shown in Figure 27.2

 Figure 27.2
27.3 Creating a Digital Dice
To create a dice, you need to generate random numbers using the Rnd function. Rnd
generates numbers between 0 and 1. The statement

n = Int(1 + Rnd() * 6)

generates integers from 1 to 6 randomly.

In the code, we introduce the variable m to control the length of time of the rolling process. If
m is more than 1000, then the rolling process will stop by setting the timer enabled property
to False.

The complete code is shown below:

Public Class Form1

Dim n, m As Integer
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object,
ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
m = m + 10
If m < 1000 Then
n = Int(1 + Rnd() * 6)
LblDice.Text = n
Else
Timer1.Enabled = False
m = 0
End If
End Sub
Private Sub RollDiceBtn_Click(ByVal sender As
System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
RollDiceBtn.Click
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub
End Class

Running the program produces a dice with fast changing numbers which stop at a certain
number. The interface is shownin Figure 27.3

Figure 27.3

Lesson 28 : Creating Animation

Although Visual Basic 2010 is a programming language designed for creating business
applications, it can be used to create animation. In this lesson, we shall illustrate to create
animation with VB2010 through a few examples.

28.1 Moving an object

In VB2010, you can use the Top and Left properties of an object to create animation. The
Top property defines the distance of the object from the topmost border of the screen while
the Left property defines the distance of the object from the leftmost border of the screen.

By adding or subtracting the distance of the object we can create the animated effect of
moving an object.Start a new project and name it as Movable Object, or any name you wish.
Now insert a PictureBox and in its Image property import a picture from your hard drive or
other sources. Next, insert four command buttons, change their captions to Move Up, Move
Down, Move Left and Move Right. Name them as MoveUpBtn, MoveDowbBtn,
MoveLeftBtn and MoveRightBtn.

Now, click on the buttons and key in the following code:

Private Sub MoveDownBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MoveDownBtn.Click
PictureBox1.Top = PictureBox1.Top + 10
End Sub

Private Sub MoveLeftBtn_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object,

ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MoveLeftBtn.Click
PictureBox1.Left = PictureBox1.Left - 10
End Sub

Private Sub MoveRightBtn_Click(ByVal sender As

System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles
MoveRightBtn.Click
PictureBox1.Left = PictureBox1.Left + 10
End Sub

Explanation:

Each time the user clicks on the Move Down button, the distance of the PictureBox increases
by 10 pixels from the top border, creating a downward motion. On the other hand, each time
the user clicks on the Move Up button, the distance of the PictureBox decreases by 10 pixels
from the top borders, thus creating an upward motion. In addition, each time the user clicks
on the Move Left button, the distance of the PictureBox decreases by 10 pixels from the left
border, thus creating a leftward motion. Lastly, each time the user clicks on the Move Right
button, the distance of the PictureBox increases by 10 pixels from the left border, thus
creating a rightward motion. The interface is shown below:
 Figure 28.1

28.2 Creating Animation using Timer

We can create auto animation using timer without the need to manually clicking a command
button. we shall show you how to write the code. First, insert a PictureBox into the form. In
the PictureBox properties window, select the image property and click to import an image file
from your external sources such as your hard drive, your Pendrive or DVD. We have inserted
an image of a bunch of grapes.Next, insert a Timer control into the form set its interval
property to 100, which is equivalent to 0.1 seconds. Finally, add two command buttons to the
form, name one of them as AnimateBtn and the other one as StopBtn, and change to caption
to Animate and Stop respectively.

We make use of the Left property of the PictureBox to create the motion. PictureBox.Left
means the distance of the PictureBox from the left border of the Form. Now click on the
Timer control and type in the following code:

Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal

e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
If PictureBox1.Left < Me.Width Then
PictureBox1.Left = PictureBox1.Left + 10
Else
PictureBox1.Left = 0
End If
End Sub

In aforementioned code, Me.Width represents the width of the Form. If the distance of the
PictureBox from the left is less than the width of the Form, a value of 10 is added to the
distance of the PictureBox from the left border each time the Timer ticks, or every 0.1
seconds in this example. When the distance of the PictureBox from the left border is equal to
the width of the form, the distance from the left border is set to 0, which move the PictureBox
object to the left border and then move left again, thus creates an oscillating motion from left
to right. We need to insert a button to stop motion. The code is:

Timer1.Enabled = False

To animate the PictureBox object, we insert a command button and key in the following
code:

Timer1.Enabled = True

The Image of the Animation program is shown below:

Figure 28.2

Lesson 29 : Creating a Database

Application
29.1 Introduction to Database
Every day we come across many types of information. Some examples are names, addresses,
money, date and stock quotes. A professional handles even more data. For example, a doctor
needs to keep track of patients’ personal and medical information. The information includes
names, addresses, phone numbers, blood pressure readings, blood sugar readings, surgical
history, medicines prescribed in the past and more. On the other hand, businesses have to
manage a large amount of data pertaining to products and customers. All these data need to
be organized into a database for the ease of data management.
In the past, people typically deal with data manually like using cards and folders. However, in
present day fast paced global environment and Information age, it is no longer feasible to
manage data manually. Most data are now managed using computer-based database
management systems.

Computer-based Database management systems handle data much faster and more efficient
than human beings do. With the advent of the network and the Internet technologies, data can
now be managed locally and remotely. Database management systems are used in running
payroll system, inventory system, accounting system, payment system, order handling
system, customer relationship management system(CRM) and more. Some of the commercial
database management system(DBMS) are Oracle, Microsoft SQL server, and Microsoft
Access

29.2 Creating a Database Application in Visual Basic 2010

A database management system typically deals with storing, modifying, and extracting
information from a database. It can also add, edit and delete records from the database.
However, a DBMS can be very difficult to handle by ordinary people or business men who
have no technological backgrounds. Fortunately, we can create user-friendly database
applications to handle the aforementioned jobs with the DBMS running in the background.
One of the best programs that can create such database application is none other than Visual
Basic 2010.

Visual Basic 2010 uses ADO.NET to handle databases. ADO.NET is Microsoft’s latest
database technology which can work with many other advanced database management
systems such as Microsoft SQL server. In this lesson, we will develop codes that make use of
Microsoft SQL Server 2008, therefore you need to have Microsoft SQL Server 2008 installed
on your PC, otherwise, you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=1695. Besides, you might want to download Microsoft SQL
Server 2008 Management Studio Express, the SQL database management system that allows
you to create and manage databases.

To begin building the database project in Visual Basic 2010, launch Visual Basic 2010. You
can name your project as Database Project 1 or whatever name you wish to call it. Next,
change the default form’s Text property to Contacts as we will be building a database of a
contact list. There are a few objects in ADO.NET that are required to build the database.
There are:

 SqlConnection- to connect to a
data source in SQL Server
 DataTable -to store data for
navigation and manipulation
 DataAdapter- to populate a
DataReader
The aforementioned objects belong to the System.Data and the System.XML namespace.
Therefore, we have to reference them in the beginning before we can work with them. To
reference the ADO.NET object, choose project from the menu then select Database Project 1
properties to display the project properties. Next click the References tab to show the active
references for the project, as shown in Figure 29.1

Figure 29.1
Under imported namespaces, make sure system.data, System.Data.Sqlclient is selected,
otherwise, check them. Having done that you need to click the Save All button on the toolbar
and then return to the Visual Basic 2010 IDE.

We shall proceed to create the connection to the database source file in the next lesson.
Visual Basic 2010 Lesson 30-
Creating Connection to
Database

30.1 Creating Connection to a

Database using ADO.NET
In Visual Basic 2010, we need to create the connection to a database before
we can access its data. Before we begin, let’s create a new database. Since
we are using SQL Server 2008 as the database engine, we will use Microsoft
Studio Management Express to create a database with the mdf extension.
We shall name this database file as test.mdf. After creating the database,
build a table called Contacts and create two fields and name them
ContactName and State respectively. Enter a few data in the table and click
Save All to save the data. Now we are ready to connect to this new database.
ADO.NET offers a number of connection objects such as OleDbConnection,
SqlConnection and more. OleDbConnection is used to access OLEDB data
such as Microsoft Access whilst SqlCOnnection is used to access data
provided by Microsoft SQL server. Since we will work with SQL database in
our example, we will use the SqlConnection object. To initialize the variable
to a new SqlConnection object, we use the following syntax:

Private MyCn As New SqlConnection

Having created the instance of the SqlConnecton object, the next step is to
establish a connection to the data source using
the SQL ConnectionString property. The syntax is:
MyCn.ConnectionString = “Data Source=lenovo-4903350b\mssmlbiz;
AttachDbFilename=C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data\Test.mdf; ” & _
“User Instance=True;Integrated Security=SSPI”
* You need to change the reference to the SQL server (lenovo-
4903350b\mssmlbiz) as well as the path to database file Test.mdf .
After establishing connection to the database, you can open the database
using the following syntax:
MyCn.Open()

30.2 Populating Data in ADO.NET

Establishing connection to a database in Visual Basic 2010 using
SqlConnection alone will not present anything tangible things to the user to
manipulate the data until we add more relevant objects and write relevant
codes to the project.

The next step is to create an instance of the SqlDataAdpater in our code so

that we can populate the DataTable with data from the data source.
Besides, you also need to create an instance of the DataTable. Other than
that, you should also create an instance of the SqlCommandBuilder which
is used to manipulate data such as updating and deleting data in the
Datatable and send the changes back to the data source. The statements
are:

Private MyDatAdp As New SqlDataAdapter

Private MyCmdBld As New SqlCommandBuilder

Private MyDataTbl As New DataTable

Having created the above of objects, you need to include the following
statements in the Sub Form_Load event to start filling the DataTable with
data from the data source. The statements are as follows:

MyDatAdp = New SqlDataAdapter("Select* from Contacts", MyCn)

MyCmdBld = New SqlCommandBuilder(MyDatAdp)

MyDatAdp.Fill(MyDataTbl)

After filling up the DataTable , we need to write code to access the data. To
access data in the DataTable means that we need to access the rows in the
table. We can achieve this by using the DataRow object. For example, we
can write the following to access the first row of the table and present the
data via two text boxes with the name txtName and txtState respectively:

Dim MyDataRow As DataRow = MyDataTbl.Rows(0)

Dim strName As String

Dim strState As String

strName = MyDataRow("ContactName")

strState = MyDataRow("State")

txtName.Text = strName.ToString

txtState.Text = strState.ToStringMe.showRecords()

* The two fields being referenced here are ContactName and State. Note
Index 0 means first row.
showRecords() is a sub procedure created to show data in the text boxes.
The code is as follows:

Private Sub showRecords()

If MyDataTbl.Rows.Count = 0 Then

txtName.Text = ""

txtState.Text = ""

Exit Sub

End If

txtName.Text =
MyDataTbl.Rows(MyRowPosition)("ContactName").ToString

txtState.Text =
MyDataTbl.Rows(MyRowPosition)("State").ToString
End Sub

The output interface:

We will discuss how to manipulate data in the next lesson.